(1) Field of the Invention
The inventive concept is within the field of small, portable pocket lights that may be conveniently carried on one's person and used for illumination in a variety of situations where space is limited. Generally, such lights are popular but they frequently suffer from several drawbacks. Typically, the aiming of the light is limited and not adjustable relative to the main body of the light case. Most pocket lights of this genre are limited to one specific application, such as reading books, road maps, or small documents. The vast majority of such lights cannot aim their illumination from an assortment of positions, provide angled light beam focus, and easily change light direction while free-standing, as can the inventive concept disclosed herein.
(2) Description of the Related Art, Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
Pocket lights with clips are known in the industry. For example, a pocket light designed to fit over the top of the shirt pocket of a user is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,306,348. Many pocket lights are bulky and comprise a great many components. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,309,137 has two joints and a telescope arm which consists of several parts, but the device can only provide a relatively limited range of light beam directions.
Other documents presenting similar products include U.S. Pat. No. 5,410,457 (Parker, 1995), disclosing a small-sized versatile-use flashlight which has a hand holdable battery housing with a cap being pivotally mounted on said housing. Within the cap is included appropriate electrical connections to supply battery power to a light bulb mounted within a light bulb housing. The light bulb housing is pivotally mounted onto the cap with the plane of the pivotal movement of the light bulb housing being perpendicular to the plane of the pivotal movement of the cap relative to the battery housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,442,528 (Vandenbelt, 1995) is an invention utilizing a neck mechanism possessing a memory effect that repeatedly returns a light-bearing neck to its original curved position when extended. The mechanism features a light-bearing neck which can be retracted to fit within the body of the bookmark and can also be pushed to extend out of the bookmark, causing the light to automatically energize above the pages of a book when reading.
In general, the drawback of these and other prior art lighting devices is that their designs restrict them to a single type of use or purpose, either as a flashlight, a headlight, or a reading light. Most of them are not configured to provide multi-functional application. Having a single light device with multi-functional applications can save space and money for the general consumer.
As a result, a need exists for a lighting device having multi-functionality or uses, such as a flashlight, a hat light, a pocket light and a task light, which will overcome the drawbacks of the prior art without introducing any new problems in place thereof.